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The decision was made to fire
Rutgers head basketball coach Mike Rice yesterday, less than 24
hours after videotape was broadcast showing him repeatedly
physically and verbally abusing his players including using gay
slurs.

Rutgers athletic director Tim
Pernetti in announcing the decision said "I am responsible
for the decision to attempt a rehabilitation of Coach Rice. Dismissal and corrective
action were debated in December, and I thought it was in the best
interest of everyone to rehabilitate, but I was wrong. Moving
forward, I will work to regain the trust of the Rutgers
community."

Here's the videotape in question,
first aired on the ESPN show Outside The
Lines on Tuesday:The Lesson For Brands

Lesson #1: Never put anything
or anyone ahead of the brand itself.

When the videotape was first
brought to the attention of both Pernetti and university
president Robert Barchi in November, their collective decision
was to suspend Rice for three games and fine him $50,000.Really? That was it?

Could the fact that Pernetti
hired Rice in the first place have anything do with it?

Could Pernetti have been trying
to cover his own you-know-what by not acting in a more direct,
forthright manner in the first place?

Of course no one will ever know
for sure so it's merely conjecture at this point but it is worth
noting at the very least.

How can you explain that it took
for the videotape to become public and the subsequent outcry via
social media and every other medium to finally do the right
thing?

Less than three years ago Rutgers
University was witness to a truly horrific series of events
culminating in the suicide of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year old
freshman who took his own life after a roommate recorded him
kissing another man in their dorm room and then posting the video
online.As Pearlman so
astutely points out in his column "... while perhaps other
colleges and universities could be excused for having a tin ear
when it comes to gay bullying, Rutgers cannot. It is
shameful."

Shameful doesn't even begin to
cover it.

How could this university, this
brand to put it into context, allow something like this to go on
knowing that transpired less than 36 months prior?

Lesson #3: Trust is
everything to a brand and once it's gone, it's very hard to get
back.

Father Time is always in control
when it comes to these kinds of things of course but when
Pernetti says he "will work to regain the trust of the Rutgers
community," he has his work cut out for him - and then
some.See not only must
the Rutgers brand seek to regain the trust it must do so with the
right people driving the proverbial bus.

At Penn State, the decision
was made, and rightly so I might add, to replace many
high-ranking officials including the school president Graham
Spanier.And no, I am in
no way comparing the heinous acts that occurred in Happy
Valley.

So please don't get there.

What I am saying is how much
trust can the public have - and I mean the public far outside
"the Rutgers community" in both Pernetti and Barchi.

I for one have none.

And have zero interest in hearing
anything either one has to say about things such as "moving
forward" and any use of the word "culture."